Post Tagged with: "League of Legends"

Is probably a tank. It just doesn’t fit my playstyle well. I prefer to play DPS with a healing ability since I play solo a lot. I could go tanky, but that often means that I have a low damage output and just messes up with my gaming vibe. I want the enemy’s HP bar to disappear in seconds.

Oceanmariee of Soul of the Forest blogged about this and it’s an interesting prompt, so I wanted to talk about what classes (or roles) I do play and why I won’t pick tank or melee classes as often.

Arclight Varus

I used to have a laggy internet connection and was deathly afraid to play anything melee. Especially in League of Legends. I knew that I couldn’t jump into a fight, because that often meant that I was dead before my screen readjusted to real time. It sucked.

Now my internet connection is great and I rarely have lag anymore. I tried melee in multiple games now and I’m still on the fence if I like playing melee at all. It worked for my monk in Diablo 3, but I didn’t like the martial artist class in Blade & Soul. It might because of the game and the combat mechanics, I haven’t thought about that well enough.

Greed: The Baroness of the Treasure Realm. This is bonus level which you can find in a portal left by a treasure goblin.

Even in Guild Wars 2 where each class can wield a multitude of weapons, often both melee and range, I tend to go for range. The bigger, the better. My main, a ranger, does have melee weapons in her bags so I can switch to sword or great sword when I know these will work better against the enemies I’m facing.

Naella is wearing the Strider’s Armor, Rox’s Bow and Quiver.

I’m always looking for the most interesting class to play in a new game, where ‘most interesting’ is a class that isn’t be done by everyone else. Warriors, rangers, mages are old. Give me something interesting, something new. Think of a new way to crush demons. Maybe mind control them and have them eat their own brothers and sisters. It’s a nice twist on the classic necromancer. I’d play that.

There are probably more games that I would reinstall after a full cleaning job, but these games are special. You’ll think I’m nuts for picking these games. And I know there’s a ton of you out there that wouldn’t pick these games if you could only pick two to have, always.

Ok. Are you ready? First game:

Diablo II: Lord of destruction

It’s one of the best action RPGs of the century. I love that game. I’ve played it so much that my grades went down. I met several great people via Diablo (also some not so great people, but yeah). This is pure nostalgia. I won’t play this all the time, just once in a half year or something.

It was the first game that I played online. I believe I was twelve years old and I was a girl on the internet. You know what happened. The same things that happen now, only then I didn’t knew how to handle it. Hell, I didn’t even know how to handle boys in general. I joined a Dutch clan, Voices of Chaos. They helped me get to max level, kill all the bosses and provided me with some awesome gear.

I found a Buriza (Buriza-do Kyanon) in a chest in Act 3 on Normal. Of course it wasn’t the greatest of Burizas, but it was good enough for my first bowazon. I’ve played my burizon so much. I really wish I still had her. I used her often to boost other people. Baal-runs were one of the things that I often did on my own. Just like Meph-runs (didn’t give me good loot often), or Diablo-runs (I just liked to kill the dog). I could keep going all night.

It was the first game that introduced me to lan parties. I found a bunch of nerds at my school who also played and we played together. We didn’t use voice chat, since I didn’t want to use a mic when my parents were reading the paper behind me. It was still a lot of fun. Playing together. Talking over chat. I really enjoyed playing together with friends.

What I didn’t like was people (often newbies) that didn’t listen to my advice. When I say, stay behind me, in a Baal-run I expect you to stay behind me. Don’t run in like an idiot, get killed, and then blame me for not saving your ass. That’s what pushed me away from playing with people I didn’t know.

Back then I still had to share the pc with my brother. The pc was in the kitchen and we both had to negotiate time. That also made the time you had more valuable. I ran like a crazy person to get what I wanted. It was often that as soon as I had my time on the pc that I only hunted for loot. No, this wasn’t good. The policy my parents gave me was. I learned to negotiate, I learned how to share, I learned to value something of limited resource. My sister, six years younger, didn’t have to share the pc with anyone besides my parents. My brother and I already pcs in our rooms when she was old enough to care enough about the pc. She didn’t learn these things.

Diablo II will always be my number one nostalgia game. My comfort game. The game I know by heart.

Game number two. This one will raise some hairs, I’m sure. Don’t judge until you’ve read my arguments about why I wouldn’t want to delete this game. I’m sure you’ll find you have the same reasons for not wanting to uninstall a game you like. Think about that. Not the game I picked. Read it. See my side of the story. Not just what the internet tells you.

League of Legends

Yes. There it is. It’s no secret that I play this game. It’s also not a secret that I don’t play it often. I won’t hide the fact that I, definitely, aren’t very good at this game. So why is it a game that I wouldn’t delete?

I started playing League of Legends a few years after it came it out. I think Irelia was one of the newest champions. Yes, that long ago. Sivir was the first champion I bought. She fitted with my playstyle in every way. I played mostly ranged classes in other games and my internet connection was fairly unreliable so, ranged was good. Melee champions would get me killed if I was standing in a team fight and lagged out. It didn’t help me, it didn’t help my team, it annoyed the hell out of me.

I leveled my way up to thirty by playing against AI. Most people immediately jumped into normal games as soon as possible. I was still suffering from the annoyance that people didn’t cooperated with me. Vs AI was easy enough to win, even when there was no team play at all. As Sivir I was the AD Carry and was supposed to do the most damage. Sivir is a great pusher. Back then the meta was that the AD carry was alone on top. She could far easily and if you had enough range and/or skill, it was easy to win of the bot. These bots only laned, no roaming. You were sure there wasn’t going to be a gank, ever.

So when my friends invited me to play normals with them, I felt weak. I knew my champion and I knew the items. But people play very differently from bots. One of my friends said that people are more predictable than bots. Mostly because they follow a meta, they follow the play of someone else. Anticipation is one of the skills that you need for League of Legends, and that was something I severely lacked.

I didn’t like normals as AD Carry. There was too much responsibility on my shoulders and I thought I was one of the weakest people on the team. So I switched roles to support, with Sona as main. She was perfect. Face roll Sona. She did damage, she healed, she had utility. What’s not to like about her. I was still mic-less, while the others were on TeamSpeak. I was the silent one. Just like Sona.

Sona was a reflection of me, while Sivir was the image of who I wanted to be. Bad ass, confident, deadly and beautiful. These two are still the characters that I can relate to the best. In most rpgs you get to pick your own character. You can customize them and your choices will affect their development. League of Legends isn’t an RPG, but its characters were more relatable for me than most of the characters I created in RPGs.

When I started to play Sona for my team, I became known as a deadly Sona. I wasn’t the one who let the low HP enemy escape. I was the Sona who sought out the kills. I built ability power next to the normal utility items for support. Once I played AD Sona and kicked more ass than the AD Carry. We had fun. That’s the kind of thing you can do in Normals, not in ranked.

I refused to play ranked. I don’t have a competitive bone in my body. I’m the one that avoids conflict rather than look for it. I didn’t care much if we won or lost. I still don’t. I was playing for fun. What’s the most fun game mode in LoL? ARAM. All random, all mid. You have no idea what you’re going to play. You just have to make the best of it. To this date, it’s still the only game mode that I play, especially when I’m playing solo. It’s quick, it’s fun, it’s unpredictable. It’s still capable of raising my adrenaline level.

Over the years the game has changed a lot. Not only does it have a lot more champions, items changed, the map changed, the meta changed. There was something else that changed as well. Something that you don’t see in-game. Not immediately at least. The universe of the game changed. Riot Games has spend a lot of time, money and manpower in creating a believable universe. This includes lore stories, short animation videos, subdomains for certain events, music videos, mobile games, merchandise.

The foundation for this universe is getting stronger every month with new releases of non-game content. I applaud Riot Games for this. Thank you so much for making League of Legends so much more than a battle arena. I’m writing this blog while listening to the songs they have created. The Warsongs, Pentakill’s album and the first volume of League of Legends music. I’ve watched the documentary Frequency a few times and I often sing along with them.

Once I dreamed about a game. It had five points, all over the map, with one in the middle. There was a windmill, and I was chasing my enemies with Tristana through the bushes. Now, this wasn’t not the map of Summoner’s Rift. I had to kill the enemy team and try to capture the points. Purple auras lit up around the giant circles in the ground. Jarvan then jumped me and killed me. This was something I dreamed before the game mode of Dominion was announced, which was the next day. Is it a sign? Probably not. But it’s awesome. I was so invested with League of Legends that I regularly dreamed about it.

The reasons why I can’t delete the game is this. I can relate to the character in deeper way than I can with other characters. Why? I can’t really say. It’s a gut feeling. I have a connection with this game that I can’t explain. It’s in my mind and I can’t forget it. It’s a game that I love and which doesn’t betray me. I know what I can expect when I play LoL. I love the universe of League of Legends. I love how Riot Games is expanding it. I want to support them. I’m loyal to them. They may not know me and that’s ok. I know my support will reach them (monetary or otherwise).

Ok, so hate me now. I won’t burn down a game based on its community. Of course there are moments when I curse my teammates for playing a sucky game. Then again, I don’t always play the best games myself. Especially when I haven’t been playing for awhile. There will always be people on the internet who aren’t nice, who are mean, who are angry, who blame others for their mistakes, who blame you for the mistakes you make, even when you make up for it later. Those people will always be there. Even in real life. I just choose not to let them get to me. They don’t define the game which I’m playing. I choose to see the positive side.

Music Monday – A game themed song every Monday I already dropped this one on Twitter and people thought it was a good idea. I don’t think there are enough people promoting the awesome sounds of games and my growing game OST map only shows that more developers are willing to give us access to just their songs. Expect awesomeness, but if you have suggestions, please let me know in the comments or on Twitter.

This is one of the songs Riot Games made for the new Ultimate Skin, DJ Sona. She actually has her own soundtrack which she plays for her team mates. The skin isn’t out yet, but I’m going to buy it. I love Sona, and this really is a great idea. She can switch forms and has a different song for each form. Team mates can opt in to listen to her songs or opt out if they want to listen to their own music. /toggle will let you change her form.

I’m not a big fan of dance music, but lately I’m listening to some light dubstep while gaming, because it’s relaxing. I thing DJ Sona’s songs will fit perfectly in that playlist, although they’re slightly more aggressive. All three songs have their own still. This one, Kinect, fits very well in the dance-genre, Concussive (DJ Sona’s red skin) is more on-beat. It reminds me of SSX3’s soundtrack, which I think still one of the best. Ethereal (DJ Sona’s blue/purple skin) is very mellow and the most relaxing of the three.

I honestly think that Riot is doing a great job in producing high quality music for League of Legends and for the lore. I mean, Pentakill is one of my favorite albums and The Curse of the Sad Mummy is still on repeat.

I read about it somewhere last year and I’ve wanted one long before this longing had a name. I’ve played other games with this feature and it’s something I know I’ll spend a lot of time and money on. Yes, I’m talking about the wardrobe.

[Update 26-3-2014] All keys have been given away. I hope everyone got the key they wanted. I will keep my eye out for more and new giveaways. There are still people in the comments who wish to trade keys from other servers. Help them out if you can. Share the love. If you didn’t get this skin, you can still claim Garen, Tristana and Alistar for free. Check out the links on the right side.

Alienware will be giving away the Arclight Varus skin throughout the month of March. These keys are limited, so get them fast. You can sign up and Alienware will send you an email with the time when you can claim a key. The keys are for NA and EU server, although they don’t specify for which EU server they are. You’re only able to claim one key.

I received this skin from a mystery gift and I like it very much :) As with the other free skins, even if you don’t have the champion, you will be able to claim the skin and thus receive the champion for free.

[Update 07-03-2014]The first week of the giveaway is over! Didn’t get the skin? Don’t worry, Alienware is still giving them away for the next three weeks :) I noticed that the EU giveaway started at 19.00 CET (10 am PST). They also mentioned in the mail that it’s very likely that the keys will be gone within 15 minutes.

Also, check out Mark’s comment below. I have no idea if it works. It didn’t feel right for me to claim one of your keys. Please let me know if it works. Also, if someone could send me the starting time of the NA release last Tuesday, that would great :) We can help each other.

[Update 11-3-2014] Cato confirmed it to work. Share the love. If you have a code for EU server, consider sharing it with someone from the other EU server :) Tonighy is another NA giveaway! Be ready!

I’m back from the lan party and it was awesome. This lan party is held at a four star hotel, so the beds are good, the food is good and the chairs are comfy. The best, of course, is the people. This group is limited. Friends of friends only and you have to be approved. So all the assholes and cheaters are kept out. No one will steal your controller or hard disk when you go to sleep. The conversations are great during dinner time and on Teamspeak. I love these weekends very much. Maybe even more than real vacation. So what did we play?

Riot has released a champion spotlight with the new abilities. I’m not sure what to think of it yet. I want to play her with the new kit first before I say they’re not good. The new abilities do give her more CC, which is always good as support. But I’m not sure she’ll be a viable mid. I think there are better chars for mid. It seems she has more range which is always good. Especially since they change her passive. Now there’s no need for you to tank the shit of it and then do damage when your HP is so low you get another 100 AP extra.

Just a quick for this one. I saw this one passing by on Facebook and couldn’t help but sharing it :)

Isn’t she cute? Danny Choo linked me this picture. If you’re an anime fan, you should definitely check out his website www.dannychoo.com . If you’ve seen a stray stormtrooper in random japanese pictures, it’s him.

Finally! I finally managed to get to level 30, and not without obstacles. I played a lot of co-op games against bots to get the necessary experience. I chose bot games because of the slight xp/ip boost and because I prefer to play normal games with my friends who mostly play in the evenings. I have to share my gaming pc and my sister usually wants it in the evening, so tough luck. I received about 130 experience from bot games, depending on who I played as. With Ashe I could easily get 20 kills, more than half of the team kills, but only if my lane buddy wasn’t being an ass and I didn’t have Graves up in my face.

When I reached the point of only needing 109 more experiences I told my friends I wanted to play a game with them and celebrate my victory. Since I was playing with friends, I proposed to play a normal game. Although I don’t have that much experience with normal games, I get compliments from my team mates when I’m playing Sona. Our line was… okay. Nothing special and should work, except it didn’t. Maybe our team play wasn’t good enough or the enemy champs were just good counterpicks, I don’t know. We ended up losing after a thirty minute match and I only received 104 experience…

And I didn’t get to play ‘the last match’ until two days later. This final match was another loss, just as the four after that. I’ve got a beautiful losing streak on my recently played matches. Although I’m level 30, the hard part starts now. With 68 games won and 63 games lost on normal, I’ve much room for improvement. Hopefully next post I will have a winning streak again, possibly with Varus and/or Karma’s remake :)

The Scarred King by Rose Foreman & Josh Foreman

League of Legends Skins

Play with me!

Do you want to game with me?
You can add me on Steam, Origin, Raptr, X-Fire or League of Legends. All use the same nickname: Endalia.

Or, if you want to give me some extra love and want to play League of Legends and you don't have an account, you can sign up here and give me some love <3
Diablo 3 Battle Tag: Endalia#1709
Guild Wars 2 Identifier: Endalia.8109